Audit reveals missing $90M from SporTT; scores of employees suspended

Sports Minister Anil Roberts has confirmed that more than 100 employees of the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT) were suspended on Friday following the discovery of "messy" financial documents.

The audit uncovered evidence of a $90 million discrepancy and the squandering of $700 million between the years 2004 and 2010, the Sunday Express reported, citing Roberts as its source.

Both Roberts and SporTT chairman Rhett Chee Ping denied allegations of "political cleansing", the Exprerss said.

The paper said Roberts told its reporter that budget allocations during the six-year period amounted to $700 million, some of which appears to be missisng. "We have $90 million disappeared somewhere," Roberts told the paper, adding that the action taken is expected to plug "the relentless financial haemorrhage" within the organisation.

The paper said Roberts noted that when the People's partnership government took office it discovered that no audit was done since 2004, which explains why the audit ordered took several months. "What was supposed to be a two to three-week job, now taking them over five months and it still going on," he said.

The paper cited Roberts as saying that despite the lack of audited accounts SporTT still received over $100 million in annual budget allocations, adding that the lack of audit documents has made it impossible for the company to access the line of credit set up by the Government to pay contractors.  
 
The Express reported that Roberts said he did not have anything to do with the decision to suspend the employees but commended the board's actions. "I find the board take long to act. They were supposed to be doing this since June."

SporTT, which reported to sport minister Gary Hunt in the Manning PNM administration was plagued with allegations of bad spending. 

Some of the issues that made embarrassing headlines included the $2 million flag at the Stadium in Port of Spain, the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba and spending on refurbishing facilities for the Caribbean Games that had to be cancelled.

Hunt eventually admitted that the monster flag was a bad decision after staunchly defending it as good value for money. 

Read the story: $2M Flag was a mistake that would never be repeated: Sports Minister